JULIUS CAESAR

JULIUS CAESAR

By no means a Celt himself, Gains Julius Caesar earns his place here as a destroyer of Celts. He made a greater negative impact on the Celts than anyone else in history.

Caesar came from an old patrician family. In 85 BC, when he was only 16, his father died suddenly. Caesar was young to be head of the family, but he started at once working his way up the cursus honorum, the ladder of oflSces and appointments that would enhance his social status. In pursuing his political career and lobbying for offices, he ran up debts and was accused of conuption.

When he was appointed Governor of Cisalpine Gad (northern Italy), with Transalpine Gad (sodhem France) added later, he was glad to get out of Rome. He was deeply in debt: a great spur to military adventure.

From a variety of motives, including self-glorification and dtimate political triumph, Caesar worked his way through Gad, attacking the Gallic tribes one by one and defeating them. Once he had conquered the tribes along the coast of the English Channel, the way was clear to cross and take Britain.

In 55 BC, Caesar blocked an attempt by two Germamc tribes to invade Gad. Then, in late summer, he crossed the Channel into Britain. But his geographical and

Political knowledge of Britain was not good enough. He managed to establish a bridgehead on the coast in Sussex, but could not go further. He withdrew to Gad for the winter.

In 54 BC he returned to Britain with a larger force and achieved more, setting up some alliances that wodd prove usefd later. But there were poor harvests in Gad, and a widespread revolt there forced Caesar to withdraw from Britain again.

What Caesar did, unintentionally, was to set down a challenge for fiiture emperors who wanted to make a name for themselves. Codd they succeed in conquering Britain, where great Caesar himself had failed?

In 52 BC there was a new and larger revolt in Gad, led by Vercingetorix. This was well-coordinated and Caesar was defeated several times before the revolt was put down at the Battle of Alesia.

Plutarch claimed that in Caesar’s Gallic Wars one million Gads had died and another million had been enslaved. Caesar had subjugated 300 tribes and destroyed 800 towns. The figures may have been exaggerated, but it is no exaggeration to see this as little short of a Celtic genocide.